In other Vegetable News...

Wait, you mean there are other vegetables? From reading this blog, you would probably think there was nothing but tomatoes...

But, no, we do have other vegetables. Lettuce is going strong at the moment, but a few are showing signs of bolting. This is one set of lettuce. Also a few late broccoli (which I think are ready to flower even though they are barely an inch in diameter) and some soramame (big beans?) which are being attacked by aphids (I have a close up photo of the aphid problems I will post soon, isn't it nice to have something to look forward to?) Our compost bin is on the left and the small mini tomato patch from yesterday's post behind.

These are other other lettuces and behind them, baby okra. And my husband is thinning! No really! Stop presses! It is a rare event indeed. I was watch a Desperate Housewives episode where Lynette and Tom go to a marriage counselor and she is upset that he is always good cop, forcing her to be bad cop. Well, that's what I sometimes feel like in the garden. When infanticide is called for, I'm the one who has to do the deed. Anyway, here he is, I made him thin his okra and cucumbers himself. These were okra seedlings from the garden store. Salad okra, green and red. I also have some seedlings I started, but haven't planted out yet.
Zucchini is going strong. I planted Black Beauty and Lebanese varieties, and so far the BB seems to be growing faster than the L.

These are the pumpkin seedlings my students planted. Jack o'Lantern on the left and Howden on the right.

Kabocha on the left, then Jack be Little, and Cinderella pumpkins. A few artichokes at the top and bottom. I planted two artichokes near the big tomatoes yesterday, and big pumpkins at the bottom of the embankment this morning. Jack Be Little mini-pumpkins are going to be on a trellis in front of my classroom.

And here are mystery pumpkins which were growing out of the mini-tomato plot. They are the most healthy of all our pumpkins, but we have no idea what kind they are. Last year we had Howden, Cinderella, standard kabocha, and a oval shaped gourd that didn't look or taste very good, but was strong enough to beat back weeds on the embankment. If these are any of the first three, we want to keep them, but if they are the steam roller gourd, we don't. Hmmmm....

Here are baby corn at the bottom of the embankment. We are going to try three sisters this year with corn, vine beans, and pumpkin.We had lovely spinach, but Mr. Must-sow-all-the-seeds-in-the-packs planted them all at the same time and despite my most valiant efforts (spinach for every meal, including breakfast) most of it ended up going to seed.
Cucumbers... Mr-I-won't-kill-a-baby-seedling has an undisclosed number of these hoarded up in curious places around the garden. Oh well, when they are at their peak, we won't be here. If he wants to give himself the cucumber crud again, it is is his choice.
Carrots. He planted them in rows at least this time, but see what I mean about the thinning? I think I will have to give in and be designated murderer again.
Beans...

Onions, peas and potatoes. Just a few potatoes, because M hates potatoes and L is allergic. Well, I said, "Just a few potatoes, okay, honey?" See how he listens to me... I love potatoes, but cooking anything with potatoes means cooking an alternative for the girls. I don't love cooking. But I see a lot of potato cooking in my future. Maybe we should consider a third child. Pregnancy gives me major potato cravings.

The girls check out the potatoes. Do you think Daddy is going try to make us eat all of these??? You're lucky, you're allergic!

Happy New Year!!

I'm back to blogging again after a long break! Sorry about that. I have a lot of catching up to do and will try to get around to posting fall photos at some point. But here we are at winter already. Gifu has had two snowfalls already this year. One in December (the girls and I were in the US and missed it) and another at New Year. The New Year snow is almost gone but we are expecting more tomorrow. During the past 11 years I have lived in Gifu, it has rarely snowed more than once a winter, so this is unusual. Though it snows, the temperature rarely drops below freezing, so the winter veggies manage to hang in under the snow until it melts. Here is an update on how they survived the most recent snowfall.Spinach. Oh spinach. We love to eat spinach. Good thing too. Boy do we ever have spinach. My husband and I disagree on what is a reasonable amount to plant in a given space. As of next year, he will be removed from seed sowing duties. Right now, he prepares the beds and sows the seeds. I thin, pick, and cook. This is a major problem, because he believes he must use all the seeds in the packet, no matter how many packets he buys or how much space is available, or how much spinach one family of four can reasonably be expected to consume. This is just one small bed of many. The spinach is hardy and got a bit flattened by the snow, but still tastes yummy.
Daikon. I told him not to plant daikon, as I am in charge of cooking and a few daikon go a long way. His father grows daikon and gives it to us. Does he listen to me? See above about finishing seed packets. Drowning in daikon are we. Anyone have any good daikon and/or spinach recipes to share?
Hakusai. The bugs got them at first, but they are doing better now that it is colder.
Lettuce from random left over seeds from last year (when I was in charge of seed sowing) doing well.
The broccoli is gorgeous and delicious. And in perfect moderation. Hooray!
Baby strawberries. These are new plants we bought in the fall that are in planters.
The strawberry plants that got accidently transplanted with the raspberries to the embankment are also starting to flower. This poor confused raspberry plant was actually raspberrying under the snow.
My husband built a reinforcement for the bottom of the north embankment and transplanted lots of his baby trees.
Including the red maple which was in middle of the back yard.
Today's harvest. I am off to cook it now.

Cosmos

The cosmos are just starting, but I do love them. Especially this kind.
Cosmos and veggie patch. Lemon grass on the right, lettuce that is starting to bolt in the middle, tomatoes behind.
Cosmos and rose of sharon (mallow?) trees. We started the trees from 30cm (1ft) single branch clippings almost two years ago. They grow really fast!
I am not the only cosmos lover in the family. Apparently, they are quite tasty. Hopefully, not poisonous.

today's pickings and today's dinner

Our spring veggies have finally reached the point where they constitute a major portion of our dinner. Here is today's harvest. I also ran back to pick toppings (green onions, oregano, thyme, chives) as I was cooking.
We don't grow rice ourselves, but get it from relatives. The onions are from a neighbor. The konyaku (icky-looking gray triangles), mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, milk, tofu, and miso are store bought. And we didn't catch the tuna (negitoro donburi). The eggplant is in the soup and I used one of the zucchinis for tomorrow morning's bread. The girls' dessert of a few raspberries and half a blueberry each was supplemented by loquats from the next door neighbor's tree (some of the branches hang over our yard).

Last day of May

My marigolds, which I started from seed at the beginning of April, are finally starting to bloom!

Blue Flax (linim perenne) is a perennial. Thank you, Mrs. C. for the identification! I'm sure everyone will be pleased not to have to have photos posted every other day of the same flower. I'm still counting on all of you to help me watch my tomatoes grow, though!
My husband is finally going to pull the lettuce which bolted 4 weeks ago and some of it was almost as tall as me! He needs the space for edamame. I will be happy to have the aphid nests away from my tomatoes!
Baby green beans are starting to come in.
They are still pretty small, though. Nice close up of my grimy fingers, too.
The zucchinis sure do grow fast. I think I will harvest this one (our first real zucchini) tonight. This plant seems to have developed some sort of stem rot. I have beenr emoving the infected leaves, and still seems to be intent on producing new leaves and zucchinis, so I hope it will be ok. If not, I have 3 more adult plants and 2 more seedlings, so we should be okay in the zucchini department.

this and that

This frog spent it's whole day on the zucchini leaf contemplating lunch.Speaking of zucchini and lunch. We had our first cukes (front) and zukes (back) for lunch yesterday (the tomatoes are store bought). I had no male zucchini flowers and so had to harvest them as babies, but they were yummy. Today for the first time I had male and female zucchini flowers! Looking forward to more substantial zucchini in the near future. Pretty soon harvesting them at this size will seem like a good idea.
flowers
red lettuce
The green salad bowl lettuce has a terrible infestation of red aphids
raspberries
green pepper
blueberries

May 8 veggies

tons of snack peas, my favorite. I think I eat at least 100/day. Really!














pumpkins (Howden and Cinderella) planted















tomatoes staked




















cherry tomatoes, too















Salad bowl lettuce liked the rain and cooler weather. But it was hot today! Eggplant and peppers in the background.

veggies

finally planted the lettuce yesterday















Our pea plants have baby peas! hooray!















Pumpkin seeds (Howden) sprouted using the Wet Paper Towel In Plastic Bag method (5 days). We planted these Howden seeds, as well as kabocha (saved from the best tasting ones we ate over the winter) and some from my husband's friend that are meant to be very vigorous.











We planted the spinach too late, and it has gone straight to seed.















Our first green bean has been about to sprout for 2 days now, waiting breathlessly (well, not literally, or we'd be dead, of course)













zucchini















Brandywine tomato. It has potato leaves!















Big Rainbow tomato, happy in its new pot. 8cm